WinDY!

We continued to ride through wide-open and unpopulated country today. But--have we said this before? (Yes, if you read 7/24's post, you got the teaser)-- it was probably one of the hardest days we've had. Not for the several climbs (some very steep!), nor even the distance (though... with now several days in a row of 50-60+ mile days... the distance is getting to us too), but for the damn, constant (with major, heart-stopping, rib-aching 40mph gusts) headwinds and sidewinds we had to battle the last 30 miles of the day. (With contrary winds, really, throughout much of the day, to be honest.)

As usual, gratefully, the start of our ride wasn't too bad, with 14 miles on the same type of desert-y, gravelly, sandy roads, with bumps along the way, gusts here and there. Manageable. We got to see some jet black wild horses in the distance, including a family of 3 that definitely stopped to watch us as we watched them. Wish they had been closer. More pronghorns, too, cattle, gophers, bunnies, soaring hawks and eagles. Things to make us smile but maybe not to photograph.

We turned onto the pavement of a quiet county road at around mile 14, though with 2 cattle carcasses (open range country prevails this whole route!), there must be traffic sometimes. The sidewinds picked up here, and I [AB] was... set on edge by how they nearly pushed me and my load off balance... though Paul assured me I could stay upright. Stress-ful for sure, for me. Paul was having a blast, comparing it to a great sailing day, thinking how to make his sunhat a sail to carry him along.

For me, it got worse some 15 miles down the road when we met up with US Hwy 287/State Hwy 789 -- a major, busy, big-truck moving highway, with a steep uphill at the start. The winds were so hefty to even push Paul's bike over as we rested, ate and drank a bit, before turning onto and braving the highway. I [AB] actually couldn't brave it so well.The traffic and the winds and the bellowing sounds and the hill combined just... well, I opted to push until getting to a point where a hillock eased up the winds a bit for a moment, when I could get some steadiness to mount the bicycle and pedal. 

Around there, we encountered our first 2 Continental Divide hikers... and then another, and another, plus a Trans America cyclist. Busy highway on many fronts!

The winds didn't let up no matter which way the road turned or veered. It was just a slog, so much so that our CD 13 was pretty uneventful (it was the official "leaving" of the Great Divide Basin and our launch into the east slope of the Divide. But-- "Let's keep moving and just get to Rawlins!" We yelled, but the wind was so loud, we really couldn't hear what either said, though we both knew what we meant. "Let's just get there!"  

We put in an extra mile uphill slog against the wind (we laugh about it now, but...), when we weren't paying attention and didn't notice our booked motel just to the left as we took the turn onto Rawlins's Cedar St. But at least there was a good grocery nearby the bare-minimum bed-and-shower-for-the night so when we hotfooted it back downhill and showered off, we were able to get a variety of hearty food for dinner and supplies and meals the next few days, and then zone out to the old-time movie channel after getting some work done.

Bummer-- I remember now, after my sister Haven mentioned it, that we have family connections in Rawlins. I think my great aunt Marvel lived there...? My dad had said something about it long ago, and then I never checked into it.  

Day 28, Thursday, July 24, A&M Reservoir campsite to Rawlins, WY hotel. 

58 miles, 5:07  ride time, 11.1 avg speed (surprising number, from my [AB] perspective, in light of the winds and the pushing). CD 13.